Administrative Assistant

Flocerfina "Flo" Tagnipes Makiling, a retired administrative assistant, died Feb. 25 at St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo from injuries she received in an accidental fall Dec. 23. She was 69. She was born on Sept. 24, 1930, in Hinunangan, Leyte, Philippines, where she grew up and went to school. During World War II, she hid from the Japanese with her family for more than three years in a mountain hut built by her brothers when their village was invaded.

UCLA Health encourages a little goofing off on company time. But inefficiency is the last thing on the agenda. At least three days a week, employees from 10 departments at UCLA Health facilities gather as the music gets cranked up for a 10-minute workout. It's called Bruin Break, an adaptation of the "instant recess" initiative developed to motivate "mouse potatoes" by the late Dr. Antronette Yancey, a UCLA public health professor. One recent morning, physical therapists, administrative staff, the lift team (as in lifting patients)

Reporting from Washington -- President Obama won't send three pending free trade agreements to Congress for consideration until lawmakers agree to expand a federal assistance program for American workers affected by the trade deals, administration officials said Monday morning. The deals with Panama, Colombia and South Korea will displace some workers, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said, and the federal government should assist in providing their job training and healthcare needs.

Michael Lombardi has been appointed senior vice president of PacifiCare of California's Secure Horizons division, a health plan for Medicare recipients. He was previously senior vice president of marketing and sales for PacifiCare's commercial HMO business. Lombardi joined Cypress-based PacifiCare in 1980 as an administrative assistant.

Tom Pecora, administrative assistant to Nevada Las Vegas basketball Coach Rollie Massimino, is leaving the program after one year to become an assistant at Loyola Marymount. Pecora denied that his departure was a result of the J.R. Rider academic controversy, in which he was accused of pressuring an instructor into changing Rider's grade so he would be eligible for the most recent season.

A city councilman was arrested Friday and charged with attempting to extort $1 million from the developer of the multimillion-dollar Penn's Landing project, officials said. An affidavit filed in U.S. District Court said Leland Beloff and two others tried to extort $1 million from Rouse & Associates. In return, Beloff was to file and help pass a city measure to get $10 million in federal project funds, the affidavit said.

The U.S. economy will eventually rebound from the Great Recession. Millions of American workers will not. What some economists now project — and policymakers are loath to admit — is that the U.S. unemployment rate, which stood at 9.6% in August, could remain elevated for years to come. The nation's job deficit is so deep that even a powerful recovery would leave large numbers of Americans out of work for years, experts say. And with growth now weakening, analysts are doubtful that companies will boost payrolls significantly any time soon.

An avalanche crashed down onto a mountainside cabin early Friday morning, filling it with snow and killing a couple as they slept. Marsha Landolt, 55, dean of the University of Washington Graduate School, and her husband, Robert Busch, 58, were killed in the avalanche, which occurred between 1 and 2 a.m., the Camas County Sheriff's Office reported. Their son, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren survived.

Shirley Moore, who served as administrative assistant to Deputy Chief of Staff Michael K. Deaver during the Reagan administration and was the traveling secretary to the president aboard Air Force One on numerous U.S. and overseas trips, died Oct. 4 after a lengthy illness at her home in Gold River, Calif. Family members would not divulge her age. Beginning in the 1960s, the native of Oroville, Calif.

Flocerfina "Flo" Tagnipes Makiling, a retired administrative assistant, died Feb. 25 at St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo from injuries she received in an accidental fall Dec. 23. She was 69. She was born on Sept. 24, 1930, in Hinunangan, Leyte, Philippines, where she grew up and went to school. During World War II, she hid from the Japanese with her family for more than three years in a mountain hut built by her brothers when their village was invaded.

Like a character actor who never gets a starring role, Oxnard is forever being cast in bit parts. Johnny Carson, for one, made the city the butt of many jokes on "The Tonight Show." The ignominy continues with the movie "Hurlyburly," starring Sean Penn as Eddie, a Hollywood casting director whose life is careening out of control. While Penn's portrayal of the loathsome Eddie won him the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival, Oxnard continues to be typecast as a rube.

A tall noble fir stands next to the baby grand in a corner of the living room. Alicia Marcynyszyn sits across from it, containing her emotions as she has done for so many years. The unadorned tree is both beautiful and empty. Like Alicia, it waits for morning. In her life, there has been great pain.

Suddenly, it's not much fun being a member of the Ventura College men's basketball team. Or being the team's coach. Glen Hefferman, a month after assuming command of the perennially powerful program and a day after several of his players were victimized in a racially motivated brawl, said his frustration with administrators has mounted to the point he is considering looking for another job.

They are the unheralded backbone of Japanese industry: running its offices, making its tea, pampering its bosses--and taking its abuse. Now Japan's ever-polite "office ladies" are exacting their revenge--in newspaper and magazine columns where they irreverently gripe about their bosses' foul manners and expose their companies' quirkiest secrets.